The bishop of the diocese where the candidate died begins an investigation to determine whether
the person lived a heroic, virtuous life or was martyred. This can happen no sooner than five years
after the candidate’s death, although the time requirement can be waived by the pope.

The investigation is reviewed by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints and, if
approved, sent to the pope for final approval. The candidate is given the title “Venerable.”

• Step two: Beatification

A miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession must be verified by a team of medical
experts and theologians. The pope may waive this requirement for martyrs. The candidate is given
the title “Blessed.”

• Step three: Canonization

A second miracle attributed to the candidate’s intercession must be verified, although the pope
may waive this requirement. The candidate is given the title “Saint.”

Religion Blog

Monsignor A. Anthony Frecker was a grade-school student considering the priesthood in 1958 when
the Roman Catholic Church elected the pope who has become one of his personal heroes.

More than 50 years later, now facing retirement, Frecker will be in Vatican City today as his
hero becomes a saint.

Pope John XXIII will be canonized along with Pope John Paul II this morning before an expected
crowd of 1 million people in St. Peter’s Square. Frecker, 68, the founding pastor of the Fairfield
County church that bears John XXIII’s name, planned to sit in a clergy section near the altar.

He choked up when he talked about the impact the pope has had on his priesthood.

“It’s been my life,” Frecker said before he left for Rome on Wednesday. “This is the crowning
jewel of my priesthood. To think that this canonization would take place while I’m still alive is
just overwhelming to me.”

Much as John XXIII was an inspiration to many in Frecker’s generation, John Paul II motivated
many younger priests.

The Rev. William Hahn, pastor of Chillicothe’s St. Peter Catholic Church in Ross County, said he
met John Paul II in 2000 when he was a seminarian, and had the sense then that he was a “living
saint.”

“I think he was the hero of our generation,” said Hahn, 38, who was ordained in 2004. “Everybody
loved John Paul II, and so many had their vocation of the priesthood influenced by him and his
style of vibrant Catholicism.

“I think there was a great attraction for our generation. That was the model that we really
tried to follow.”

Pope John Paul II, who served from 1978 to 2005, and Pope John XXIII, who served from 1958 to
1963, are the first popes to be canonized since St. Pius X in 1954.

Monsignor Frank Lane, spiritual director at the Athenaeum of Ohio in Cincinnati, said the
canonizations represent the end of an era during which the two popes helped restore hope in the
decades after World War II.

“I think this is the culmination of the work of the church to restore humanity to its rightful
place and to a hopeful and optimistic sense of the possible,” Lane said. “These two men represent
the possibility of a future for humanity.”

While Pope Pius XII “bore the burden of that failure, that defeat of humanity” immediately after
the war, Pope John XXIII represented new possibilities, Lane said. And Pope John Paul II, who
attended seminary secretly in Nazi-occupied Poland, had the ability to imagine something
greater.

John XXIII is most remembered for convening the Second Vatican Council, which resulted in
sweeping changes to modernize the church and fostered relationships with Protestants and Jews.

John Paul II is known for facing off against the forces of Communism in Eastern Europe and for
his wide travel, his launching of World Youth Day, and his outreach to Jews.

While beloved by many for reaching out to the people, the men also have detractors. John Paul II
has been criticized for his handling of the clergy child-sex-abuse scandal and for a neglect of
administrative duties.

John XXIII has been criticized for failing to recognize the deep connections that conservative
Catholics had with the church’s long-rooted traditions. Some question the Vatican’s decision to
canonize him despite having proved his intercession in only one miracle instead of the generally
required two.

Miracles are not the only basis for sainthood, said the Rev. Jared Wicks, a scholar-in-residence
at Pontifical College Josephinum on the Far North Side who has taught at the Jesuit School of
Theology in Chicago.

Both men, he said, exhibited evidence of personal holiness and “a zeal and great dedication to
God for the betterment of the church and the betterment of the whole human family.”

“They are successes of God’s work in the human heart,” Wicks said.

Wicks, who also taught at Gregorian University in Rome, twice had lunch with Pope John Paul II,
but he said the sainthoods go beyond the personal for him. Decades of theology are based on the
Second Vatican Council, he said, and the canonizations are “tremendously encouraging” for
recognizing the popes’ impact.

Msgr. David Sorohan, a retired Columbus diocesan priest, was studying in Rome in 1958 and was in
St. Peter’s Square when John XXIII was elected. He remembers the pope stopping to talk to
seminarians as they waited for a bus or when they watched him praying in Vatican gardens.

“It’s overwhelming to stop and think I shook hands with a saint. ... That’s a lifetime
experience you just wouldn’t forget,” Sorohan said. “To be able to say, yes, I met a saint, I
talked to a saint.”

In Rome for today’s canonizations is a group of about 20 pilgrims with the Rev. Tim Hayes,
pastor of St. Timothy Church on the Northwest Side.

Judy Lorms, 74, helped arrange the trip but couldn’t go herself. She remembers Pope John Paul II
as a man who suffered and risked much to become a priest and was instrumental, alongside President
Ronald Reagan, in the fall of Communism.

She’s been praying for his canonization since he died in 2005.

“He was just exceptional as a human being and a very loving person,” said Lorms, who has visited
his humble childhood home in Poland and saw him several times in Rome. “For someone I actually saw
... to become a saint is very meaningful to me.”

At Frecker’s church, Pope John XXIII Catholic Community near Canal Winchester, parishioners plan
to change entrance signs to read “Saint John XXIII.” An unnamed donor has provided funds for a
life-size bronze sculpture of the pope that will be placed in an outdoor piazza.

The parish has collected a vast amount of John XXIII memorabilia, including commemorative plates
and medallions, religious medals, holy cards, paperweights, stamps, coins and a white skullcap worn
by the pope. The items are in a display case beneath a portrait of the pope painted by parishioner
Teresa Satola.

The church plans a May banquet to celebrate the canonization, and the sculpture will be unveiled
in June.

Frecker said he has spent his priesthood aspiring to answer the call of the Second Vatican
Council and the pope who made it happen.

“I feel that I truly understand him, and I have tried my best to emulate his spirit,” Frecker
said. “I pray, when I die and go to heaven, I hope he’s proud of me.”